Enigma
by fizzixx
Summary: An abdution... a return. A key... an enigma. A new light... and a darkness of a magnitude completely unprecedented.


FIRST FANFICTION! YAY!

Chapter 1.

An explosion rocked the side of a massive fortress in the middle of a spacious forest. It was followed shortly afterwards with more explosions, and the clang of metal could be heard as well.

"Quickly, quickly! You heard what our general ordered. We must raze the fortress to the ground, and not allow anyone to escape!"

Soldiers ran frantically from one place to another, lighting parts of the building ablaze. A contingent of troops marched up the spiral staircase into one of the towers. Upon reaching the top, the man in the front brutally kicked the door down, and led the remainder of the troops into the room. Once the dust from the assault on the wooden door dissipated, the silhouette of an old man could be seen across the chamber.

"Get him! Let no one escape!"

With the loud shouts of the soldiers and their charging footsteps, no one was able to hear the muttering of an incantation. The floor that the troops were standing on suddenly disappeared from existence, and the people were suspended in midair, frozen comically in place, before they fell through the air, down the center of the spiral staircase that they had just climbed moments ago. Another bunch of people was running up the stairs, when they suddenly stopped, and sweatdropped as ten soldiers fell from the sky.

"… aaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHHHhhhhhhhh…"

"The place seems like it's collapsing onto itself!"

"Well of course, those on the outside are currently relentlessly bombarding the tower; it is bound to fall soon. Indeed, we should quickly retreat before we are hopelessly caught within the imminent explosion."

The old man back at the top of the tower looked briefly down through the air where the ground was just a few moments ago, and then muttered under his breath. "Damnit, there's not much time. There's bound to be more of them knocking on my door (figuratively of course, as the door was gone), and even if that's not the case, the artillery attacks from the outside really are damaging the infrastructure of this building…" He glanced around the room and pondered to himself for a moment. "… it looks like all this research will be lost. No matter, it has already been applied. It is really a shame that I was never able to properly explain to the master of this castle what my purpose was; he was just so kind as to let me stay here without asking any questions… and to think that I'm probably the reason this is happening right now, heh." The old man's vision blurred for a moment and momentarily lost his balance as the building shook under the might of the strain being placed on it. "This doesn't look good… it appears as if I'm running out of magical power. I just hope that I have enough for this one last bit…" He heaved something onto his back, and then placed his open palm of his right hand on his chest. Another shake of the building brought dust and rocks falling from the ceiling, but through the debris, a glowing blue magic circle could be made out for only a second or two. As the dust cleared, the old man and whatever he was carrying was nowhere to be seen.

The castle, under the strain of the attacks, finally crumbled. The smoke that resulted from the enormous collapse rose up into the air and could be seen from miles and miles away. In the dim, gray air, the silhouette of the general could be seen, walking up to the top of the debris and placing one foot on the very tip of the mountain of rubble. He surveyed the handiwork of his troops.

"Good. Very good. Since whatever dangerous man that I was warned about did not escape," here he narrowed his eyes dangerously and looked over his troops, daring any man to speak out, "he is most likely trapped under all this trash. There is no way that anyone could survive this. We are done here. Clear out."

The footsteps of hundreds of soldiers rumbled through the smokescreen, and when the sky cleared once more, all that remained in the place of the fortress that once stood proud were crumbled stones.

Meanwhile, in the forest surrounding the destruction, the invisibility magic that the old man had put on himself had worn off, and he slowed his pace. Looking behind him, he saw that the plume of smoke that was rising into the sky had calmed from its original vigor. Deciding that it was a safe distance away, he stopped and put down what he had been carrying on his back while breathing heavily.

"It looks like I overexerted myself a bit… my age is catching up to me…" he said while panting. "Ugh… exhausted…" His body finally gave in and he fell down into a sitting position against a tree.

"Well, it's certainly been an interesting year, more for me than it was for you, anyway," he spoke to what turned out to be a unconscious young teenager beside him, "considering that you were either out cold or screaming in pain the whole time, heh." Resting his head against the tree, the old man continued.

"I'm really sorry about all the pain I made you go through. I hope that you can eventually understand that it was all for the better, and that there was simply no other way to do it... Ah, who am I kidding; you'll hate my guts for it. Oh well. At least this way you can become much stronger, and when the great, prophesied evil comes along, you will be well prepared to face it. I know you can do it."

"You're an interesting child… even with all that pain I put you through, you still tried relentlessly to escape…" the man looked grim for a moment, but then chuckled. "Hm, I think my magical power is returning to me." He stood up and looked one last time at the boy in front of him, still unconscious.

"We will meet again…" he waved as he walked away,

"… Natsu Dragneel."

Yay! Please, do review and give me suggestions. I don't have much experience with writing fanfictions .


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